The Tour de France remained suspended during the war years; but there were a series of races organized around the chaos of the war in France . The most significant mini-tour was run after the war but before the Tour could return; the La Course du Tour de France (Monaco-Paris) was in 1946. The war was over and the organizers of the Tour de France could not re-start a proper Tour de France in 1946. The Monaco-Paris race was organized by Le Parisien Libere along with L'Equipe (which took over from the defunct newspaper Le Auto ). This collaboration took over the formal organization of the post-WW2 Tour de France . In 1946 it was widely thought of as a logistical practice run before the Tour-proper was resumed in 1947.